The Land Trust is the story of Eleanor Lamme, a working-class woman in southwest Montana who has married into immense wealth. After seeing an artfully composed photograph of a bear, she decides to start a conservation nonprofit. Over the course of the book, Eleanor fends off PR disasters, installs her friends on the board, and buys up thousands of acres of land. She becomes a leading figure in philanthropy circles, but loses friends and her dignity along the way. My novel is a contemporary comedy of manners, a satire of the nonprofit industrial complex, and a sendup of the outdoorsy white liberals who populate my hometown.